My 2018 Mac mini developed this problem on the latest Catalina about 10 days ago, and Photos was not updating on this device, but was on my MacBook Pro, iPad and iPhone. Tried an OS re-install using Recovery Mode which fixed it for a couple of days. Then tried the Repair Library utility and Photos has been back to working fine again for 3 days now.
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cloudphotod going crazy with cpu usage/disk writes
- Thread starter iMacDragon
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Same here - Catalina on 2018 Mac mini, not updating photos, on Mac Pros and iPhone, all ok.
OS re-install is pretty hard step to take, and hopefully it's something that can be avoided. :-( Did you need to re-install everything?
Actually the re-install is pretty easy. Only took one hour, no data or preferences changes at all. I've done it before when gremlins appeared. But if it develops again I might try the Photos Repair Library utility first. Far as I can tell, that did no harm to my Photos collection and Photos is working normally again.
The re-install did, however, fix an App Store update gremlin on my mini. Did my MacBook too when the mini was done and tested (for different reasons).
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Hello everyone.
Update, after three weeks:
The library problem is not completely gone, but a bit better. I needed to kill cloudphotod process twice during that period - first after a week and second time after another 5 days. Apart from killing (with sig 9) the process taking 100% cpu and constant ssd-write, some other photo* processes needed to be restarted. Note that before, I needed to deal with this process on almost daily basis and also the library stopped updating regularly. So I consider this state as a bit better than the previous, but far from ideal :-(
I hope Apple fixes this in some soon update.
Update, after three weeks:
The library problem is not completely gone, but a bit better. I needed to kill cloudphotod process twice during that period - first after a week and second time after another 5 days. Apart from killing (with sig 9) the process taking 100% cpu and constant ssd-write, some other photo* processes needed to be restarted. Note that before, I needed to deal with this process on almost daily basis and also the library stopped updating regularly. So I consider this state as a bit better than the previous, but far from ideal :-(
I hope Apple fixes this in some soon update.
Hey guys,
I am wondering, by any chance do you have something that might be blocking connections such as Little Snitch installed? I am somewhat suspecting that might be the culprit, I just turned it off earlier today and will wait and see if that does the trick. What got me thinking is that my wife's computer isn't exhibiting any of these issues and we have a shared family library, the key difference is that she has no need for something like Little Snitch.
However, prior to be suspecting it is LittleSnitch messing with cloudphotod's connections which is causing it to go into some type of death loop spiral. I do have a solution which actually worked that I have been using for a few weeks and yet still have the ability to retain having my library synced with iCloud.
It is just a matter of setting up a local cron job to run every 5 minutes to disable the process via launchctl, no need to baby sit the process at all.
Once the crontab is installed, you should not have any further issues. It is less than an ideal solution but it does resolve all this madness. I am hoping that this might all have to do with connection blocking, will report back later if it does indeed resolve the issue.
Good luck, sadly since 10.6 Snow leopard it has been going down hill fast.
I am wondering, by any chance do you have something that might be blocking connections such as Little Snitch installed? I am somewhat suspecting that might be the culprit, I just turned it off earlier today and will wait and see if that does the trick. What got me thinking is that my wife's computer isn't exhibiting any of these issues and we have a shared family library, the key difference is that she has no need for something like Little Snitch.
However, prior to be suspecting it is LittleSnitch messing with cloudphotod's connections which is causing it to go into some type of death loop spiral. I do have a solution which actually worked that I have been using for a few weeks and yet still have the ability to retain having my library synced with iCloud.
It is just a matter of setting up a local cron job to run every 5 minutes to disable the process via launchctl, no need to baby sit the process at all.
Code:
> crontab -e
> */5 * * * * launchctl stop com.apple.cloudphotodOnce the crontab is installed, you should not have any further issues. It is less than an ideal solution but it does resolve all this madness. I am hoping that this might all have to do with connection blocking, will report back later if it does indeed resolve the issue.
Good luck, sadly since 10.6 Snow leopard it has been going down hill fast.
Not to my knowledge, anyway, haven't run littlesnitch or the like for a few years.
Trouble is it's hard to be absolutely sure issues gone as it's so intermittent!
Good idea on the crontab, though as a rough workaround.
Trouble is it's hard to be absolutely sure issues gone as it's so intermittent!
Good idea on the crontab, though as a rough workaround.
Well, so much for my blocked connections theory, cloudphotod started hogging the CPU a few minutes shortly after I re-enabled it and had LittleSnitch off. I just don't understand how it affects some libraries while not others.
Alright, trying a different approach now.
Who knows, going to give this a try, getting desperate now. For me personally this started since El Capitan so it has been a pain for a while now, desperate to find a solution. I also find it laughable reading posts surrounding this issue that Apple support suggested resetting NVRAM, like what does that have anything to do with it?
Code:
1. Delete the library
2. Reboot (Needed when it is a system library)
3. Create new system photo library
4. Reboot again (For system services to pick it up)Who knows, going to give this a try, getting desperate now. For me personally this started since El Capitan so it has been a pain for a while now, desperate to find a solution. I also find it laughable reading posts surrounding this issue that Apple support suggested resetting NVRAM, like what does that have anything to do with it?
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Well its been a couple of days, seems to have resolved the issue. If it happens again I guess I will be forced through this process again. Once again it wasn't all that painful, just a minor inconvenience.
"My" approach seemed to work as well, for a couple of days, even weeks. But I need to force-kill the cloudphotod process every 14 days or so. Very disappointing, indeed. I might go for a crontab workaround until it's resolved by Apple.